


ode to a ruinous pyre

by harmony



Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Gen, specifically focusing on the Tower card featuring Ignis, this fic was written for the Tides of Fate: FFXV Tarot project
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-03
Updated: 2020-02-03
Packaged: 2021-02-28 03:21:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 427
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22546960
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/harmony/pseuds/harmony
Summary: Right now, he sees nothing. Even with scorching fire swallowing his surroundings whole, all his sight manages to soak in is a funerary dark.Then it dawns on him, slow and dreadful. And just like that, he realizes: it isn't the city that's burning.
Comments: 22
Kudos: 35
Collections: Tides of Fate: A FFXV Tarot Project





	ode to a ruinous pyre

**Author's Note:**

> I'm posting a short piece for the first time in forever LOL XD When was the last time I posted anything that wasn't a giant oneshot? Hahaha.
> 
> This is my piece for the [FFXV Tarot project](https://twitter.com/ffxvtarot) and I was partnered with the awesome [Vanmec](https://twitter.com/vanmec_ci) to focus on Ignis' card in the deck, which is the Tower card. Vanmec's amazing card design will be shown below, at the end of the ficlet! Be sure to give them some love because it's one of the most incredible pieces of art I've ever seen!!
> 
> Thank you for clicking in - I hope you'll enjoy :)

_XVI: The Tower - upheaval, chaos, destruction._

He wakes up to the city in flames.

The cold steel of pride that's hard-set into the cut of his jaw has already started to fold, giving way to tongues of heat; for once, his sharp knees buckle like the earth's crumbling away beneath his feet. For once, empty air and crippling fever and nothing else meets his trembling fingertips when he reaches out. For once, he misses stirring awake to work-weary sleep-grit beading at the corners of his lashes, and to morning sun-rays slicing too brightly into his eyes.

Because right now, he sees nothing. Even with scorching fire swallowing his surroundings whole, all his sight manages to soak in is a funerary dark.

Then it dawns on him, slow and dreadful. And just like that, he realizes: it isn't the city that's burning.

* * *

The stiff unkindness of a cane is a largely different, crueler breed from the solid comfort of his daggers and the sturdy strength of his own bones.

Twenty-two years had taught Ignis the luxury of unswerving routine - wherein his steady feet sank as deep as tree roots in the familiar, in control, in permanence; and they’d anchored him there. A _fire-tower_ , King Regis had called him once, with a ghosting hint of cheeky, kind affection. Ignis Scientia: an iron-hard pillar worth relying on, hot in his keenness and firm in his discipline.

He’d done what he could. What he had to.

The warm residue of smoke still curls from his ruined eyes as though a light’s flickered out.

* * *

And sometimes he dreams of colors, of lines and patterns that he's bound to forget, of silhouettes and faces that are already trickling away through the spaces between his fingers, and the unforgiving beauty that their memory carries is almost like burning all over again.

He burns, and the pain of its accompanying grief stings as callously as the silk-cold laughter rattling in his ears. He burns together with all the bright, honeyed fairy stories he’d distantly heard as a child: evil forces vanquished with infallible heroes scraping by unscathed. A pitiless joke.

He’s far from being a child anymore, though. The pastel-colored dream of being an untouchable pillar can only slip like a shadow into the dust of sweeter bygone days.

And yet, he’d make the same choice again if he could.

So he lurches into the yawning dark. Stumbles and plummets onto his knees. Heaves himself up; keeps walking. Up, up, a phoenix risen from the ashes.

It isn’t the city that’s burning. It’s only him.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! I put a lot of love into this piece so if you could spare a few moments of your time, I'd really love to know what you think ❤
> 
> And once again, please give [Vanmec](https://twitter.com/vanmec_ci) some love - their card design is absolutely stunning and it was an honor to have been partnered with them for this project, and also an honor to have been involved in this amazing project at all!
> 
> Come chat to me about FFXV on social media - always keen to make new friends! :) [Twitter](https://twitter.com/silverxharmony/status/1224399205445144576) | [Tumblr](https://harmonization.tumblr.com/post/190629492501/)


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